Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Mobile Phones

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish a list of the mobile phone applications developed by his Department and its agencies in the last three years; and what the cost to the public purse was of developing of each of those applications.

Margot James: The information requested is not held centrally. The Government Digital Service has, however, published guidance on gov.uk advising that developing native or hybrid apps is not usually the best way to deliver public services. https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/working-with-mobile-technology#native-or-hybrid-apps

Ministry of Justice

HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of providing HM Courts and Tribunal Service cleaning and security services in-House; whether trade union recognition will form part of the tendered contracts; and what steps he plans to take to ensure that employees are paid the living wage as recognised by the Living Wage Foundation.

Lucy Frazer: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 25 June 2018.The correct answer should have been:

HM Courts & Tribunals Service has undertaken an assessment of the merits of providing services in-house but has determined that continued outsourcing of these services is the most efficient model and provides best value for the taxpayer. For such contracts, service providers are expected to observce Cabinet Office Guidance that "service providers should actively communicate and, where appropriate, seek to build good relations with trade unions"For all such contracts, trade union recognition is a requirement of service providers. Rates of pay for employees delivering outsourced services are determined by their respective employers. All employers must comply with statutory legislation and pay at least the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage.

Lucy Frazer: HM Courts & Tribunals Service has undertaken an assessment of the merits of providing services in-house but has determined that continued outsourcing of these services is the most efficient model and provides best value for the taxpayer. For such contracts, service providers are expected to observce Cabinet Office Guidance that "service providers should actively communicate and, where appropriate, seek to build good relations with trade unions"For all such contracts, trade union recognition is a requirement of service providers. Rates of pay for employees delivering outsourced services are determined by their respective employers. All employers must comply with statutory legislation and pay at least the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Right to Buy Scheme

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much has been spent from the public purse on (a) advertising and (b) promoting the right to buy scheme in each year since 2010; and how much he plans to spend on (i) advertising and (ii) promoting that scheme in each year to 2020.

James Brokenshire: Holding answer received on 11 September 2018



No money was spent on advertising and promoting right to buy in 2010 and 2011.The attached table sets out costs from 2012 to current.These costs are the total spend of promoting the scheme and include creative development, production, media buying, web hosting, and printing and publishing of forms and booklets.In 2015- 2017, the Department ran a separate home ownership campaign, ‘Own Your Home’. In some cases, it has not been possible to separate out spend on right to buy and Own Your Home and we included the combined total.The 2018 costs relate to the promotion of the voluntary right to buy pilot in the Midlands, including development of a website which provides information about eligibility and guides users through the application process.Future spending plans have yet to be determined.



Right to Buy - Spend Summary
(Excel SpreadSheet, 12.05 KB)

Cabinet Office

Government Departments: Location

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) Government organisations and (b) departmental offices are based in (i) towns and (ii) cities in the UK.

Chloe Smith: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 27 June 2018.The correct answer should have been:

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.


UKSA response 
(PDF Document, 66.8 KB)




UKSA response 
(PDF Document, 69.33 KB)

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.


UKSA response 
(PDF Document, 66.8 KB)




UKSA response 
(PDF Document, 69.33 KB)

Employment: Statistics

Kate Hollern: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government has made an assessment of the validity of the inclusion of people on zero hour contracts in official employment statistics.

Chloe Smith: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 06 July 2018.The correct answer should have been:

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply. 


UKSA response 
(PDF Document, 66.71 KB)




UKSA response 
(PDF Document, 129.23 KB)

Chloe Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply. 


UKSA response 
(PDF Document, 66.71 KB)




UKSA response 
(PDF Document, 129.23 KB)

Cabinet Office: Public Appointments

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department holds information on the socio-economic background of people appointed to senior positions in his Department in the last five years.

Oliver Dowden: Information on the socio-economic background of staff in my Department is not currently held. More information about Government-wide plans to collect information on socio-economic background of civil servants was published in May 2018 and is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/socio-economic-background/socio-economic-background-seb .

Cabinet Office: Brexit

Kirsty Blackman: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the 2018-19 Main Estimates, published in April 2018, how much funding his Department has allocated to prepare for the UK leaving the EU.

Oliver Dowden: HM Treasury has already allocated over £2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced at Autumn Budget 2017 for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this was allocated to departments can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March(https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/). This money will be paid out in Supplementary Estimates 18/19 later this financial year.

Government Digital Service: Staff

Jo Platt: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2018 to Question 169867 on Government Digital Service: Staff, what the gender balance of the staff that work for the Government Digital Service.

Oliver Dowden: The Government Digital Service is an integral part of the Cabinet Office and is included in this reply. Information about the diversity of the Cabinet Office workforce (and other Civil Service Departments) including gender is published annually by the Office for National Statistics in their Civil Service Statistics bulletin. The latest bulletin (at 31st March 2018) can be downloaded at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/civilservicestatistics .

Government Departments: Small Businesses

Philip Davies: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, who the small business ministerial champion is in each Government Department.

Oliver Dowden: The requested information is in the table below DepartmentMinisterRemitHOBaroness WilliamsMinister of State for Countering Extremism and Minister for EqualitiesMoDStuart AndrewMinister for Defence ProcurementNIOMinister VaraParliamentary Under Secretary of State for Northern IrelandDITGraeme StuartMinister for InvestmentBEISKelly TolhurstMinister for Small BusinessMHCLGRishi SunakMinister for Local GovernmentDDCMSLord AshtonParliamentary Under-Secretary of StateDfELord AgnewParliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School SystemDefraGeorge EusticeMinister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and FoodDExEUSuella BravermanParliamentary Under-Secretary of StateFCOSir Alan DuncanMinister of State for Europe and the Americas at the Foreign & Commonwealth OfficeDHSCSteven BarclayMinister of State for HealthDFIDLord BatesParliamentary Under-Secretary of StateMOJRory StewartMinister of State for PrisonsDfTBaroness SuggParliamentary Under Secretary of State for TransportHMTRobert JenrickExchequer Secretary to the TreasuryHMRCMel StrideFinancial Secretary to the TreasuryDWPBaroness BuscombeParliamentary Under Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Lords)WOMinister AndrewsParliamentary Under Secretary of StateSOLord Duncan of Springbank (TBC)Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Cabinet Office: Staff

Gareth Snell: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many staff (a) are employed directly by, (b) are seconded to and (c) work under contract to his Department.

Oliver Dowden: Cabinet Office has the following numbers of staff: a) The number of staff employed directly is published online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-workforce-management-data-2018-to-2019.b) 594 full time equivalent (FTE) people were on secondment in to Cabinet Office or on a loan from another government department. This is not published elsewhere and is dated at Quarter 1 (April – June 2018).c) The number of contractors in Cabinet Office is published online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-workforce-management-data-2018-to-2019.